CC Sabathia and the (Yankee pitchers') hit factory

I watched with great interest as New York Yankee pitcher CC Sabathia bat against Chicago Cubs counterpart Randy Wells during the rubber match of their three-game series at Wrigley Field. Sabathia flied out his first two times up and on his final at bat, struck out.

In his final AB, CC who has had three careers home runs (including a 440-foot roundtripper vs. the LA Dodgers’ Chan Ho Park) and 14 RBIs (two hits with New York the rest with Cleveland and Milwaukee) went down this way:

1^st pitch FB in for a strike 0-1

2^nd pitch low for ball 1-1

3^rd pitch ball 2-1

4^th pitch FB low 3-1

5^th pitch inside corner 3-2 FC

6^th struck out swinging

Two Yankee runners were stranded but at least the match was tied at 4-4 at the top of the sixth inning. New York scored the last nine runs of the game to win 10-4 and the series 2-1 to go up to 41-29 in the AL East.

Of course, teams do not pay their pitchers to hit since they play few interleague games a year. Still I thought of the best Yankee pitchers since interleague play began and baseball-reference.com had this to show:

I'd say that Roger Clemens, Mike Mussina, and Andy Pettitte were helpful at the plate. I also thought of Pettitte’s single against Cole Hamels in Game 3 of the 2009 World Series against Philadelphia. Pettite’s single scored a run; his third in 18 post-season ABs and second in World Series play. That was huge.


In the meantime, there was no save situation for Mariano Rivera who begins his chase of Trevor Hoffman's record of 601 saves. I'd say that Rivera has been tougher since he began as a set-up man for former closer John Wetteland before taking on the role of closer in 1997. When you consider the pressure-cooker situation playing for the Yankees, it's an even more incredible feat (he's saved 89% of his opportunities). And he's had 14 post-season saves pitching at least two innings. Plus, he's won five World Series titles with New York while losing twice.

Scanning the list, there are only two former Yankees on the list -- John Wetteland and Rich Gossage. Of the two, the latter spent several years in pinstripes while the former played only one year -- 1996 -- where he was named World Series MVP after nailing the mandatory four saves in an incredible finals series versus Atlanta.


photo is by Getty Images' Jonathan Daniels.